Space Cadets: Dice Duel

Stronghold Games’ fast and frantic sci-fi game puts you and your friends on the bridge of a spaceship trying to destroy your less favorite friends.

 

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Space Cadets: Dice Duel is the “sequel” to Space Cadets, an earlier game by Stronghold Games. The first iteration had players assigned to roles such as “weapons” and “sensors”, each role having its own game-within-a-game. Each game tested memory, dexterity, and how loud you could yell over everyone else. Unfortunately, the game felt more like a bunch of mini games strapped together in a time limit. Dice Duel does away with the vastly different games and (somewhat) standardizes actions across various roles. It also pits two teams against each other, each team represented by a space ship on a grid. Whether you’re the engineer, the weapons guy, or comms, you’re rolling dice. However, each role also wants different things out of dice. “Weapons” wants to build torpedoes and load them in the front or the back of the ship. Sensors wants to roll “targeting” or “jamming” to help your ship get a lock or disrupt the enemy ship’s lock on you. Engineering is the lifeblood of both teams, divvying up power wherever it is needed (which is everywhere).

Dice Duel kept the fast and frantic feel of the original game, but also made it more interesting by pitting two teams against each other. The more standardized mechanics are welcome, especially considering there were so many different components in the original game. Dice Duel had my friends shouting and scrambling for dice as we tried to line up torpedo shots or avoid the enemy’s. The game takes a little less than an hour, and the fast and frantic nature cuts into any overarching strategy you could come up with. Overall, play this game if you want to have some fun, but avoid it if you want a more strategic game with a slower pace. The game could also use some more depth, especially since I was often doing relatively little if I completed my assigned roles.

Space Cadets: Dice Duel has done so well that Stronghold Games is currently developing an expansion: the hilariously named Space Cadets: Dice Duel – Die Fighter. Hopefully it will add some more depth to the game.

To buy or to look at more reviews, check out Space Cadets: Dice Duel on Amazon.

Star Realms

Magic: The Gathering pros Darwin Kastle and Rob Dougherty bring you Star Realms, a sci-fi deckbuilding game that’s simple to pick up but has quite a bit of depth.

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Star Realms is brought to you from the same developers of the magic-themed deckbuilding game Ascension and the similarities show. In both games, players start with a hand of generic cards which they use to purchase cards from a five card pool in the center. Both games feature cards that belong to one of four factions, and each faction has mechanical differences. Unlike Ascension, almost all cards that can be bought from the middle combo off cards of the same type. Star Realms rewards more focused strategies that involve buying cards of one or two factions and pulling off combo attacks to decimate your opponent.

The game is simple enough to pick up, but has a bit of depth. There are outpost cards that can give you bonuses to money or attack power, and there are others that force opponents to destroy the outpost before attacking you. Some cards that deal  damage each turn even act as soft-taunts – Does your opponent try and wear you down, or do they get rid of your outpost dealing one damage per turn. The game is great for casual players and runs for about half an hour. In addition, it can be packed in a bag and doesn’t have many components. I would not recommend this game to players who intend to play for hours on end. There are better longer games out there of the deckbuilding (Dominion) or sci fi variety (Battlestar: Galactica, Twilight Imperium). Additionally, the price hovers just below $40 on Amazon, and it has been sold out in most gaming stores since its launch. If you’ve decided that you’re done changing your paychecks into Magic: the Gathering boosters or you want a simple game for your non-gamer friends, Star Realms can fill that niche.

To buy or to look at more reviews, check out Star Realms on Amazon.

Saga Vol. 1

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples give you the best deal around: Saga Vol. 1 for just under $7. Go get it! Part space opera, part drama, part mayhem, all awesome.

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Everyone’s talking about Saga. Yes, everyone. The winner of the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is a heavy-hitter coming from Image Comics, the same publisher that brought us The Walking Dead and Spawn. Its success has even given Image‘s newest project, Wayward, the tagline: “From the team hoping to be half as successful as Saga and Sex Criminals.”

Saga is set in the far flung future, immersing the reader in a war between the technologically advanced, winged humanoids from the planet Landfall and the magically-inclined, horned humanoids from Landfall’s moon, Wreath. The story open in media res with Alana, a Landfallian soldier, giving birth in a garage with her lover Marko, a denizen of Wreath. This sets of a chain of events, with their child Hazel at the exact center of a galactic war that has swallowed not just Landfall and Wreath. The first few issues cover the two sides hiring spies and assassins to kill Marko and Alana and their child that threatens the war on both ends.

The best word to describe Saga is frank. Alana and Marko are frank about their complete inability to be parents, about child birth, about their relationship. Characters curse up a storm. Prince Robot IV looks like a human with a television set for a head. Deal with it. Saga attempts to cut through an otherwise complex story and deliver a more earthy experience. The main characters don’t feel like star-crossed lovers caught up in high science fiction intrigue. They feel like young adults who just happened to fall in love and have no idea how to be parents, never mind parents on the run. Fiona Staples’ art does an excellent job bringing the character’s to life.

My only problems with Saga are the more gratuitous aspects and the amount of scene switching. Saga likes you to know it’s an adult work – there’s sex, violence, violent sex. It’s great, but it’s a tough bridge to walk and sometimes Saga‘s scenes lack tact and are more blaring than meaningful. Second, there are a lot of characters, and each of them has something to do and say. I love that Vaughan has developed all these characters (including the would-be assassins), but it’s much better to read the volumes than the trades – it can be hard to piece everything together when you’re only getting 20 pages per month.

 

To buy or to look at more reviews, check out Saga Vol. 1 on Amazon.

Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon

Artists David Aja and Javier Pulido team up with writer Matt Fraction to deliver the new and improved Hawkeye as part of Marvel Now!, and the result couldn’t be better. 

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Hawkeye. Avenger. No super powers. Completely regular guy. That could be the tagline for this comic. If you’re fresh from the Avengers movie and looking for more over-the-top alien action, this comic may not be for you. First, Hawkeye: Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon does not feature much of the Avengers. Second, writer Matt Fraction focuses on what sets Hawkeye apart from the other members of the Avengers – the fact that Hawkeye is just a man. He isn’t a Norse god or a genius inventor.

Unlike DC’s rebooted Aquaman title, Fraction’s Hawkeye manages to balance the humor of being a man sandwiched between cosmic villians and super-powered allies, and nailing the more emotional, human parts of the character. There’s a part in this volume where Hawkeye is abducted right off his tenement roof (yes, no mansions like Tony Stark) by a technologically advanced adversary, which is a perfect example of the balance Fraction is trying to achieve: a hero caught up in comic book plots, and a regular guy just trying his best to get by. He is accompanied by his Young Avengers bow-wielding counterpart – Kate Bishop – who may or may not be a kind of sidekick – or maybe even love interest. Certainly the characters have chemistry – Hawkeye as the bumbling ‘just-trying-to-do-the-best-I-can’ guy and Bishop playing the straight man. Though Hawkeye acts as a mentor to Bishop, she often comes off as the more mature. All told, their interactions are a highlight of the first volume.

The volume is drawn by two artists: David Aja draws issues #1-3 and Javier Pulido draws issues #4-5. Both styles are minimalist, with many details omitted and few colors used. Pulido’s issues had a much more retro feel than Aja’s, reminding more of the Golden Age of comics. Personally, I enjoyed Aja’s styles more, as Pulido’s facial expressions often felt empty or hollow.

What I especially like about this iteration of Hawkeye are how the artists and writers play with form. One issue in Vol. 1 segments parts of an action sequence with the trick arrows Hawkeye and Bishop are pulling out at random during a high speed chase. It does a great job giving the reader insight into Hawkeye’s arsenal, while also spurring a couple of heated dialogue between Hawkeye and Bishop. All in all, Hawkeye Vol. 1 is a stellar read and I highly recommend it.

To buy or to look at more reviews, check out Hawkeye Vol. 1 on Amazon.